B E H 



B E II 



BEHLULIA, a town of Syria, 40 miles i'ouiL w>.'ft of 

 Ak-ppo. 



BEHMEN, or Boehm, Jacob, in Biography, commonly 

 called by his admirers, tlie " German Theofophill," was 

 born of poor parents at a village near Gorlitz, in Upper Lu- 

 fatla, in 1575. Having been taught to read and write, at 

 the age of 10 years, he was apprenticed to a (hoe-maker, or 

 taylor, and in 1594 became a mailer and was married. Al- 

 though he never entirely forfook his occupation, his eccentric 

 genius f-on earned him " ultra crepidam," beyond his laft. 

 Engaging in thofe theological controverfies, which weie 

 fpreading in his time through Germany, among the lower 

 claflcs of the people, he was much perplexed concerning 

 many articles of faith, and prayed earneftly for divine illu- 

 mination. In this ftate of mind he fell into a trance or tx- 

 tncy in 1600, which laded for Icven days, and afforded him 

 an intuitive vifion of God. Soon afterwards he had a fecond 

 extacy, in which he found himfelf furrounded on a fudden 

 with celelHal irradiations, his ipirit being carried to the inmoll 

 world of nature, and enabled topenetrate through the external 

 forms, lineaments, and colours of bodies, into the recefs of 

 their effences. In a third vifion of the fame kind, other 

 more fublime mylleries were revealed to him, concerning the 

 origin of nature, and the formation of all things, and even 

 concerni{ig divine principles and intelligent natures. Thefe 

 wonderful communications he committed to writing in 161 2; 

 and publilhed a book, entitled " Aurora," the principles 

 and llyle of which are fo myllerlons and obfcure, that it is 

 not eafy.to underlland or explain them. Indeed the author 

 himfelf declares that the mylleries of this book are incom- 

 prehenfible to flefli and blood, and that though the words 

 be read, their meaning will lie concealed, till Ihe reader has 

 by prayer obtanicd illumination from that heavenly fpirit, 

 which is in God, and in all nature, and from which all things' 

 proceed. Gregorius Richter, a clergyman of Gorlitz, hav- 

 ing feen this work, reproved the author from the pulpit, and 

 procured an order from the fenate of the city for fuppreding 

 It ; and Behmcn was required to difcontinue his attempts fur 

 enlightening the world by his writings. Behmen acquiefced, 

 and refrained from writing for 7 years. A copy of the 

 work, however, found its way to th.e prefs at Amllerdam, 

 in 1619; and in the fame year he wrote another book on 

 the three principles, to which in the courfe of a few years 

 he added feveral others. In 1624 he travelled to Drefden, 

 where he v/as examined by a body of divines, and difmiffed 

 without ccnfure. He died in the fame year, after having 

 received the facrament from the hands of Elias Dietrich, and 

 was honourably interred at Gorlitz. His other works are 

 " Of the Three-fold Life of Man ;" " Anfwer to the 

 Forty C^ieftions of the Soul ;" " Of the Incarnation of 

 Chrill, his Sufferings, Death, and Rcfurrection ;" " A Book 

 on the Six Points ;" " On Celeftial and Terreftria! Mylle- 

 ries ;" " De .Scriptura Rerum;" " On the Four Complex- 

 ions ;" " On True Repentance ;" " On True Refignation ;" 

 " On the Second Birth ;" " Myfterium Magnum ;" " On 

 the Eirfl Book of Mofes ;" " On Spiritual Life," &c. 

 Thefe treatifcs appeared ieparately, and were afterwards col- 

 lected and printed together. The bell edition is faid to be 

 that in i2mo. publifned in German, at Amllerdam, in 1682. 

 An Englilh edition of his works was given by Mr. William 

 Law, in 2 vols. 410. 



In Jacob Behmen, a warm imagination, united with a 

 gloomy temper, produced that kind of enthuliafm, which in 

 its paroxyfms dillurbs the natural faculties of perception and 

 underllanding, and produces a preternatural agitation of tl;e 

 nervous I'yllem, during which the mind is tilled with wild and 

 wondei ful conceptions, which pafs for viiions and revelations. 

 Every page of his works, and even the hieroglyphic figures 



Vol. IV, 



prefixed to his v/orks, manifeft a difordered imagination, 

 and it is in vain to attempt to derive his " Theofophia," 

 from any other fonrce ; unlefs we incline to admit his own 

 account, in which he boafts that he was neither indebted to 

 human learning, nor was to be ranked among o-dinary phi- 

 lofophers. He fays that he wrote " not from an external 

 view of nature, but from the diftates of the fpirit ; and that 

 what he delivered concerning the nature of things, and con- 

 cerning the works and creatures of God, had been laid open 

 before his mind by God himfelf." The conceptions of this 

 enthufiail, fufficiently obfcure in themfelves, are often ren- 

 dered more obfcure by being clothed under allegorical fym- 

 bols, derived from the chemical art. As hi frequently ufes 

 the fame terms with Paracelfus, he was probably converfant 

 with his writings. He alio appears to have acquired fome 

 knowledge of the doiflrine of Robert Fludd, a native of 

 England, and the Roiicrufians, which was propagated in 

 Germany with great oflentation during the 17th centurj-. 

 However he feems, upon the whole, to have followed no 

 other guides than his own inventive genius and enthufiaftic 

 imagination ; and every attempt which has been made by his 

 follovvei's to explain his fyftem has been only raifing a frefh 

 ignis fatuus, to lead the bewildered traveller farther allray. 

 Among other tenets, equally inexplicable, this myllic makes 

 God the effence of effences, and he fuppofes a long feries of 

 fpiritual natures, and even matter itfelf to have flowed from 

 the fountain of the divine nature. Upon thefe fubjedls Lis 

 language rcfembles that of the Jewilh cabbala. The whole 

 Divine Trinity, he fays, fpreading forth bodily forms, pro- 

 duces an image of itfelf, " as a God in miniature." If any- 

 one name the heavens, the earth, the flars, the elements, and 

 whatever is beneath or above the heavens, he herein names 

 the whole deity, who, by a power proceeding from himfelf, 

 thus makes his own effence corporeal. There is a great dark- 

 nefs, he fays, among the flars, where the devil holds his 

 principality ; all arts and fciences flow from the fiderial 

 fpirit of this world ; the feven hberal arts proceed from feven 

 fpirits of nature; and all human things are compofed of the 

 four full properties, bitter, four, heal, and pain. The divine 

 grace, fays this chimerical writer, operates by the fame rules, 

 and follows the fame methods that the divine Providence ob- 

 ferves in the natural world; and the minds of men are purged 

 from their vices and corruptionj in the fame way that metals 

 arc purged from their drofs ; and this maxim was the prin- 

 ciple of his fire-theology. But it is needlcls to give any far- 

 ther account of a fyllem wliich exhibits a motley mixture of 

 chemical terms, crude vifions, and myflic jargon. The 

 elements of Behmen's theology may be colledled from his 

 " Aurora," and his treatife "on three principles." 



Some have bellowed high praifes on this enthufiafl, on ac- 

 count of the wifdom which they pretend is contained in his 

 writings, and alfo of his piety, integrity, and fincere love of 

 truth and virtue. Others haveaccufed him of the moll dan- 

 gerous errors, and have written volumes in oppofition to his 

 doftrines. Amongll the moll eminent of his followers and 

 admirers, we may reckon John Lewis, Giftthiel, John An- 

 gelus, Werdenhagcn, Abraham Franckei.berg, who wrote 

 his life, Theodore Tfchetch, a Silefian nobleman, Paul Ftl- 

 genhaver, Quirinus Kuhlman, who wss burnt at Mofcow in 

 1684, Tohn Jaoob Zinimermann, and our vilionary countr)-- 

 man William Law, author of " Chrillian Perfeftion." 

 Among Behmen's numerous fi>llowers, no one rendered him- 

 felf- more confpicuous than John Pordage, a phyfician and- 

 naturalill, and member of the " Philadclphian Society," who 

 pretended to divine revelation, and declared that he was thu? 

 convinced of the truth of Behmen's dodlrines. He publilhed 

 a book entitled " Divine and True Metaphyiics," with 

 other Cmilax works in favour of Behmen's opinions, which 



S ■ being 



